The Easy Way to Handle Anxiety, Johnny Montoya [the chimp paradox TXT] 📗

So, what are we going to do exactly?

Well...

 

* In Chapter 1 I'll elaborate on my beliefs further. My hope is that you'll embrace them and incorporate them into your personality.

 

* In Chapter 2 I'll explain what causes anxiety and what's really going on behind the scenes, so you know exactly what you're dealing with. I'll give you a clue: it's a hardware problem, combined with your bad thinking habits.

 

* In Chapters 3to8 I'll show you lots of ways to handle and get through various situations. Each chapter ends with a summary to help you remember the most important points.

 

* Finally in Chapter 9 I'll show you lots of things that you can do if you are feeling anxious, or if you're actually having a panic attack.

 

When I wrote this book I wanted it to be full of practical advice, helpful tips and useful suggestions. The kind of book that I myself will want to use! And that's exactly what it is.

 

In fact, while writing this book, I had a situation where I found myself starting to get anxious, but I followed some of the advice in Chapter 9 and I got myself back on track. The fact that I had something to turn to in itself helped a lot.

 

I'm not going to go on about theory or vague, irrelevant, impractical stuff that you can't do anything with in real terms. Nor will I use any more jargon than necessary. In fact, there's only one technical term that I'll be using, which I'll introduce in Chapter 2, and which you'll become very familiar with as we go on.

 

I'm going to show you lots of things that you can very easily do by yourself to deal with anxiety. Even if you do just a few of the things that I'm going to ask you to do, it will help you. I do, however, recommend that you give them all a try. The idea is for you to pick and choose, and use this book like a toolbox. Take what works for you.

 

The advice in this book centres around putting certain measures in place to create comfort in various situations and environments. What I want is to reduce worry so you can relax and live your life. But rather than becoming compulsive, the idea is to create calm, and then gradually let go of those crutches.

 

Read the whole book all the way through so you'll get what it's all about. Then go back to each chapter one by one and start putting it into practise.

 

OK, enough chit chat. Let's get started. Let's start reprogramming you to be a non anxious person.

 

Contents

Contents:

 

Chapter 1: WHAT YOU SHOULD BELIEVE ABOUT ANXIETY

Construct a whole new belief system, change your experience

 

Chapter 2: WHAT IS ANXIETY?

It's a hardware malfunction! But it's your fault too!

 

Chapter 3: HOME ALONE

Your Safe Zone starts here

 

Chapter 4: PEACE OF MIND WHEREVER YOU ARE

Portable comfort

 

Chapter 5: OUT AND ABOUT

Wherever you lay your hat, that's your home

 

Chapter 6: THEY'RE COMING!

How to deal with visitors

 

Chapter 7: TRAVELLING

Keep your cool wherever you go

 

Chapter 8: MEETING PEOPLE

Socialise with confidence, anywhere

 

Chapter 9: BUT WHAT IF I BECOME ANXIOUS OR PANIC?

No worries, we've got that covered too!

 

Final Thoughts

Chapter 1: What You Should Believe About Anxiety

Everyone has beliefs. Without beliefs, we wouldn't be able to function because we'd have no faith that anything is going to go one way or another. We'd scrutinize everything and rarely get things done.

 

Some examples of harmful beliefs are: This is who I am, and that's how it's always going to be...there's nothing I can do to change...I'm going to have to always be paranoid and on my guard...wherever I go, I'm always in danger.

 

And so on.

 

The good / bad thing about beliefs is that we always manage to find evidence to support them, and we give that evidence a lot of weight, no matter how small. It's bad because it makes negative beliefs powerful, but it's good because it does the same to positive beliefs. Beliefs are very malleable. This puts you in control. We want beliefs that will help us and guide us towards better outcomes.

 

Rather than carrying on with adverse beliefs, let me show you how to reprogram yourself with some new, fresh beliefs about ourselves and about anxiety. I want you to internalise them and when you do, they will begin to work in your favour. Instead of struggling with anxiety, quash it with a new philosophy. I want you to to internalise the following 5 beliefs...

 

There's always a way for you to deal with anxiety

The way you are and how your life is now may seem like it's set in stone. It's hard to imagine anything changing. But over the weeks and months, you've had experiences, made observations, learned things, and picked up things from others. You've also learned how to view and respond to things. All of that has contributed to you no longer being 100% the same as you were a year ago. It happens whether or not you know it, want it, or even care.

 

So rather than being set in stone, it's more like moving through water. You can let the waves carry you wherever they may, or you can take over and start swimming to a destination of your choice.

 

Opportunities for change are everywhere. If you pay attention, a whole world of possibilities opens up. Most of the time you have what you need to deal with anxiety. Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes you have to get a bit creative. You just have to identify and recognize your options.

 

Small things add up and make a big difference. You need to find out what they are, and do what you have to do. Your anxiety habit was the result of lots of contributing factors, and your shift back to confidence will be too.

You have the ability to create a Safe Zone

To guard against “danger”, you might rely on familiarity and routines. But this can restrict you and make things worse. It can, however, be done in a way that works in our favour. We can create a sense of safety that lets us comfortably and increasingly do what we want. If we do it right. Your Safe Zone is physically wherever you want it to be. It also includes situations. In fact, it's a mindset that you take wherever you go.

 

Telling yourself that you feel OK, using specific words (like a spell), or doing a sequence of actions (like a ritual), can be enough to associate a place or situation with an emotion. By telling yourself that you don't feel OK, you feed anxiety. So why not use the same method to intentionally fix what you've unintentionally done to yourself. For example, “I'm OK here on X street. There's no problem here.”. Or “It's always OK when I'm with this person”. Or you can take a deep breath and smile, to symbolically tell yourself that whatever you're doing or wherever you are is cool and not a problem. It can be as simple as that.

 

Keep expanding your Safe Zone. Whatever you're confident with, keep doing it. Gradually add more places and situations. Make your progress thorough. Don't rush it. If certain thoughts or actions make you anxious, go to your Safe Zone and desensitise yourself to those thoughts or actions with repetition. Show yourself what you're capable of. Then you'll know that you can do them anywhere.

 

For example, if thinking about your last panic attack or even the word “anxiety” or “panic” makes you uncomfortable, go to a place where you always feel fine, create comfortable conditions, and do it there, again and again, until it means nothing.

 

Eventually you'll let go, and you'll lose count of the number of things that you can comfortably do.

You are free to focus on the positive

If we had to always consciously think about how we function, we'd never have time to get anything done. So we develop habits. Habits are ways of thinking and behaving that